THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA 9TH NOVEMBER 2025

Water is a sign of life, He who brings water bring Life, so say and Igbo adage.

Ezekiel’s image of the water flowing from the Temple which gave life and fertility to the arid land, and leading to an evergreen vegetations, is a vision of the New Temple in Jerusalem, where all blessings, richness and productivities, will flow in all abundance. This reading was carefully chosen today as we celebrate, the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the Church of the pope. It is a sign of unity of the Church built on the Apostles as its foundation. The water flowing from the Temple represents the fruitfulness which the Church brings to all life. We as a member of this Church should in own modest way bring life and joy to enrich the people around us with the message of the Gospel.

St. Paul in the second reading showed that each and every one of us are part of the Church. We must contribute to the spreading the Good News. He used as an example a building, where every stone or brick have a vital and an important role to play. Every stone rest on another, the stones are not just dead but living stones active and productive. We as Christians should form active community, having Christ Jesus as the foundation-stone, a community where love, grace and unity flow.

The reformation of the Temple by Jesus Christ is what caused him his life. Jesus Christ openly challenged the old way of worship and practices in the Temple. The Temple is no longer the building in Jerusalem, the Temple is now the Body of Christ, the Church. According to the Universalis reflection the Temple as, “The material building which had been the center of worship was no longer important.” All worship will henceforth take place within the Christian community in all nations and in any place, thus the Church was now the place where all blessings flow, a place of sanctification and of prayer to God. What we celebrate today is the Love of God to humanity through the church. We celebrate a sign of unity and love towards the Holy See which “presides over the whole assembly of charity.”

Fr. Jerome Otitoyomi DUKIYA. C.S.Sp.